Decades of studies from respected academic institutions, have demonstrated significant impacts of porn consumption for individuals, relationships, and society. "What’s the Research" aims to shed light on the expanding field of academic resources that showcase porn’s harms in a variety of ways. Below are selected excerpts from published studies on this issue.
The full study can be accessed here.
Frequency of Pornography Use and Sexual Health Outcomes in Sweden: Analysis of a National Probability Survey
Authors: Kinda Malki, Christoffer Rahm, Katarina Görts Öberg, and Peter Ueda
Published: October 2021
Peer-Reviewed Journal: The Journal of Sexual Medicine
Background
Little is known about pornography use and its relationship with sexual health outcomes in the general population. To assess frequency of porn use and the association of sexual health outcomes with frequent porn use in Sweden.
Methods
Cross-sectional analysis of 14,135 participants (6,169 men and 7,966 women) aged 16–84 years in a Swedish nationally representative survey from 2017. We used logistic regression to assess the association of sexual health outcomes with use of pornography ≥3 times/wk.
Results
In total, 68.7% of men and 27.0% of women used pornography. Among men aged 16–24 years, 17.2% used pornography daily or almost daily, 24.7% used pornography 3–5 d/wk and 23.7% used pornography 1–2 d/wk.
Among women aged 16–24 years, the proportions were 1.2% for daily or almost daily, 3.1% for 3–5 times/wk, and 8.6% for 1–2 times/wk. Frequency of pornography use decreased with age among both men and women. While 22.6% of all men and 15.4% of all women reported that their or a sex partner’s pornography use predominantly had positive effects on their sex life, 4.7% of men and 4.0% of women reported that the effects were predominantly negative.
Variables indicating sexual dissatisfaction and sexual health problems were associated with use of pornography ≥3 times/wk: for example, dissatisfaction with sex life (age-adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: men 2.90 [95% CI 2.40–3.51]; women 1.85 [95% CI 1.09–3.16]), not having sex in the preferred way (aOR: men 2.48 [95% CI 1.92–3.20]; women 3.59 [95% CI 2.00–6.42]) and erection problems (aOR: men 2.18 [95% CI 1.73–2.76]).
In this analysis of a nationally representative survey in Sweden, we found that frequent pornography use was common among young men; that reporting predominantly positive effects of pornography use on the sex life was more common than reporting predominantly negative effects; and that sexual dissatisfaction and sexual health problems were associated with using pornography ≥3 times/wk.
The full study can be accessed here.
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